This invention relates to blades for removing the residual toner from the surface of the photosensitive rotating drum of photocopiers, and, more particularly, to resilient blades in a trailing configuration. It is known to clean the surface of a photosensitive drum of a photocopier with resilient blades which are supported in either a leading or a trailing configuration. A trailing blade creates on the upstream side of the rotating drum an acute angle subtended by the tangent plane to the rotating drum through the line of blade contact and a plane corresponding to the primary axis of the blade, that is, an angle less than 90.degree..
With conventional trailing blades the resultant of the friction and normal forces on the blade allow toner or foreign matter relatively easily to lift the blade from the drum reducing thereby cleaning effectiveness. In addition, because of the relative ease with which a prior art trailing blade can be urged away from the surface of the drum, these trailing blades typically catch or trap small particles and are more likely to mar the photosensitive surface of the drum.
An object of this invention, therefore, is a trailing cleaning blade which has excellent toner removing capability, while at the same time minimizing the trapping of toner and other particles between the blade and drum thereby causing scratching of the photosensitive surface.
A further object of the invention is such a trailing blade which is not only highly effective, but also easily fabricated, reliable, and of uncomplicated mechanical construction.
A still further object of the invention is an integral trailing blade and liquid dispensing means for lubricating the blade-drum surface interface.